PEPACTON 



I smile as I note that the woodpecker proves 

 a refractory bird to Lowell, as well as to Emer- 

 son: 



Emerson rhymes it with bear, 



Lowell rhymes it with hear, 



One makes it woodpeckair, 



The other, woodpeckear. 



But its hammer is a musical one, and the poets do 

 well to note it. Our most pleasing drummer upon 

 dry limbs among the woodpeckers is the yellow- 

 bellied. His measured, deliberate tap, heard in the 

 stillness of the primitive woods, produces an effect 

 that no bird-song is capable of. 



Tennyson is said to have very poor eyes, but 

 there seems to be no defect in the vision with which 

 he sees nature, while he often hits the nail on the 

 head in a way that would indicate the surest sight. 

 True, he makes the swallow hunt the bee, which, 

 for aught I know, the swallow may do in England. 

 Our purple martin has been accused of catching 

 the honey-bee, but I doubt his guilt. But those of 

 our swallows that correspond to the British species, 

 the barn swallow, the cliff swallow, and the bank 

 swallow, subsist upon very small insects. But what 

 a clear-cut picture is that in the same poem (" The 

 Poet's Song ") : 



"The wild hawk stood, with the down on his beak, 

 And stared, with his foot on the prey." 

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